G33K
by Chris Eng
January 3, 2006

Copy Protection War
(On the internet and in your home)

Well, it's a new year and a new chance to start things over with an new slate, but somehow we're fighting the same pointless battles we were last year but on an even larger scale. The Copy Protection War in particular has gotten ramped up to new and previously unforeseen levels (along with new levels of public awareness) due to mass-media debacles like the Sony rootkit.

In fact, the rootkit has blown up beyond Sony now to the point where the Texas Attorney-General has announced its previous lawsuit against Sony BMG (seeking $100,000/CD sold in Texas) will be expanded to include SunnComm, the manufacturers of MediaMax copy protection, which has the potential to secretly install in users computers even if the licensing agreement is declined and which is used in CDs by multiple companies (including Sony). Sony has partially deflected a massive blow by reaching a settlement in their class-action lawsuits (pending court approval), but their concessions in the settlement may have far-reaching implications in future battles against DRM.

Still, that hasn't stopped Virgin from including bizarre and counter-productive usage rules in Coldplay's new CD:

Thank you very much for purchasing this CD and helping the cause of “Anti-Piracy”. The recordings in this CD have an anti-copying function. They cannot be copied into a PC. In order for you to enjoy this high-quality music, we have added this special technology.

Before using, please first read the following:

USAGE GUIDELINES:
This CD cannot be burnt onto a CD-R or hard disc, nor can it be converted into MP3 for file sharing.

This CD has been manufactured for use in regular CD players, but might not play in the following players:
...
- Some car stereos with satellite “Guidance” systems
...
- Some CD-R/RW Recorders used for music
- Some portable CD players
- Some DVD players
- Some CD/LD Convertible Players
- Some Game Players
Although you can use your PC's Windows program to listen to certain tracks, this does not mean that the CD can be played in all PCs
...
This CD does not support Macintosh PC software.
- Except for manufacturing problems, we do not accept product exchange, return or refund.

Now, I don't know about any of the rest of you, but we have four computers in my house—two of which are Macs—and two iPods. What we don't have are conventional CD players. So, when I buy a CD, I'd like it to work in the technology I own—technology which is extremely commonplace. A decade ago—yeah, who was playing CDs in their computers back then? A handful of people maybe. Today: just about everyone. So, buying a CD and getting it home only to find a note on the inside that says if it doesn't work on your tech that's your own problem is more than a little galling—it's insulting and infuriating. The unuttered implication is that all of Virgin's customers are thieves, and while some of the purchasers of the disc will inevitably rip them and put them online, that will happen even with copy protection, so making a confrontational stand like that with your consumer-base is adversarial at best and an extremely poor business decision to boot.

Because there are alternate solutions if the media doesn't work in your player: you can always download it. And if you know in advance that the music company is going to release product that you can't use legally in your own home or car or portable music player, then more and more people are going to find themselves forced doing exactly that. People who want to do the right thing and pay for music but can't, because even if the CD did play on their computer, it would leave their system crippled and open to online attacks.

And that's kind of the bottom line: pirated copies don't have DRM on them, which means that the only people DRM hurts and inconveniences are the ones who actually pay for the music. As a business plan, that's insane—driving your customers to do the one thing you don't want them to do because you have such a poor grasp of the technology and marketplace at hand.

I am well aware that the music industry is losing money (by most accounts) hand over fist, but you can't shove the genie back in the bottle. MP3s, iPods and PCs as home theatres are here to stay and the music companies and RIAA can either adapt to the changing tech structures and work out new models for a changing musical landscape or they can rage, rage against the dying of the light. And sue teenagers.

NEWS:

- Believe it or not, there has been news that's not related to DRM or copyright. Devo, for instance, will be releasing a new CD of their greatest hits with children on vocals this March. Back when I was a boy *wheeze* we had the Minipops. Sometimes I think it sucked back then.
- Battlestar Galactica is Time's TV show of the year. The outsiders are starting to figure it out.
- The new WoW patch puts auction houses in all capital cities. FINALLY. No more freezing up in the lagmire of Ironforge just to sell some silk.
- And Jon Stewart is hosting the Oscars. FUCKING. A.

JUST RELEASED:

Have you been sad since all of the formerly dorky but now cool cast of DC's Day of Vengeance have gone away? Well, they're back (along with some of the magical big guns) in the Day of Vengeance Infinite Crisis Special. All of those hard to find encylopaedic comics that dished dirt on every character in the MU (well, up until the mind-to-late '80s, anyway) are back in Essential form, starting with this week's Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Volume 1. If you want to read one of the most in-depth interviews with one of the most talented and cranky men of comics, check out Airwave's Alan Moore Spells it Out. That empty hole in your heart that only '80s sci-fi could fill now has a plug—Alien Nation: The Complete Series; run out and get it. And one of the best arena combat video games ever is back for the Xbox with Samurai Shodown V. “All creature will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai.”